Making mistakes is common when you’re new and learning the ropes. When a mistake is made, one can usually be patient, learn from the experience and fix the issue. Unfortunately, that process only works in certain business models, such as affiliate marketing. With ecommerce, you have to react fast or lose much more.
Since you’ll be spending money on advertising and may even be paying monthly for Shopify (or Akzis.shop) and other apps (if you choose Shopify), it’s imperative that you remedy mistakes quickly so that you’re in the green instead of languishing in the red.
The best way to remedy mistakes is to avoid making them. Sounds easy right? Well, in this case, it is because we’ve compiled a list of the ten most common (and damaging) mistakes that most people make when they start a drop-shipping business. By avoiding these mistakes, you’ll not only give your new business a competitive edge, but also establish your reputation as an entrepreneur sooner.
1. Expecting quick profits – you simply can’t.
The concept of dropshipping is easy in theory, but difficult in practice. You’ll need to go through a process of trial and error before you discover winning products and campaigns.
Let’s not forget the nerves of steel you must have to keep losing money on ads until you find a winner and scale it up to massive profits.
All of this takes time and if you’re expecting quick profits, you’ll be disappointed… and may not have the patience to stay on track until you succeed.
2. Selling trademarked products – don’t do it.
Selling trademarked products such as plush toys with Disney or Pokémon images, etc. is a big no-no, especially when the manufacturers are not licensed to use these images.
Not only will your store be taken down immediately by your ecommerce provider, but you may face litigation and your credit card processor (PayPal, Stripe, etc.) could strike against you also. So be very careful when selling products with popular brand images if you don’t own the licensing rights.
3. Not opening a niche store – big mistake, huge.
All beginners to dropshipping should start off with a niche. Trying to run a general store is not only expensive, but also lowers conversions. And at that point, you’re basically starting out with all the big players against you. Amazon, Walmart, Costco all run general online stores. Shouldn’t you set your ecommerce endeavor apart from the heavy hitters with billions to spend on advertising?
Determine your niche. Stick to it and focus all of your marketing efforts around targeting that very specific demographic. You’ll find that your advertising dollars go much farther this way as well.
4. Slow loading site – amateur move.
Research has shown that 1 in 4 people will close a web page if it takes longer than 4 seconds to load. You definitely want a site that’s blazing fast. To get that, expect to pay for it. Surely you’ve heard that you get what you pay for so pay the extra fee and upgrade your site to a professional, optimized, secure ecommerce platform like Akzis.shop or Shopify.
5. Bootstrapping with almost no budget – you won’t like how that ends.
You’ll need a minimum of $3,000USD to $5k in funds to be comfortable when trying to get your dropshipping business off the ground. A lack of funds will hamper your ability to tweak and test until you find a winning product and ad.
6. Insufficient research – why won’t you listen to the data?
Exercise due diligence when choosing a supplier, products, ad platforms and so on. There are several moving parts to this business. All need to work seamlessly for your ecommerce store to operate as an efficient and reputable sales machine.
The only way to ensure that you’re getting it right will be to do your research well and choose the best options.
7. Selling low quality products – make yourself known for high-quality, and you’ll build a brand.
Selling low quality products will not only result in returns and complaints, but will also affect your reputation with your payment processor. You must ensure that what you’re selling is of high quality.
Order the product first or ask the supplier to send you a sample. This will allow you to know if the product is of good quality and worth selling.
8. Not checking shipping times – thanks to Amazon consumers expect fast turnaround times.
Long shipping times are a no-no. Sometimes, a product may have fast shipping times to the U.S. but may take a month for the same product to reach Australia.
You must be aware of the shipping times to the different countries. Making your customers wait ages for their product will result in refunds, chargebacks and other problems in your business.
9. Not having a system to handle returns – have answers before your customers ask the questions.
The problem with dropshipping is that the customer usually doesn’t know that you’re the middleman and not the manufacturer. So when they wish to return a product, you need to know where they’ll send it.
To your place? To the supplier? How will you handle the returns?
Make sure you know the answers to those questions before you launch your store.
10. Quitting too soon – building a business takes time.
Last but not least, a dropshipping business is a marathon and not a sprint. Quitting too soon will mean your business dies a premature death. So give your business the time and attention it needs till it succeeds beyond your wildest dreams.
Avoid these 10 mistakes at all cost, and your drop-shipping journey will be faster and less painful. It’ll also be profitable a lot quicker.
